Question about switching IDE to AHCI

[zandre88]

Hey everyone!

It's been a little while since I've posted here but I have a question and I know all of you can help me out. So I know that AHCI is, at least I believe so, much better than IDE especially with SSD's because it allows for the use of TRIM. I am not 100% on that and I am not sure if simply switching from IDE to AHCI will take advantage of TRIM or not. I do believe though that SSDs run much better on AHCI as opposed to IDE. The only reason I even installed Windows the way I did (on IDE) was because I bought a OCZ Revodrive which became annoyingly complicated to install properly. It wasn't too bad once I finally was able to find a dedicated installation procedure but still a pain.

My question before I go on rambling too long is am I just able to simply switch from IDE to AHCI in Bios (I know I can but can I do that w/o any problems)? Will I mess up my HDD format? Lose files? Have to re-install everything to do this? etc, etc?

Hopefully you all understand what I am trying to ask.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: While searching I was able to find this. Has anyone else tried this successfully?

A little guide:

I am receiving a lot of emails from users who bought a SSD drive, installed Windows 7 in IDE mode and then realize they need AHCI mode for faster SSD performance. Once you enable that in the BIOS during Windows 7 boot up, the OS will crash.

The common question is, is there a solve for this ?

To answer that question (and I do this safely with all Intel ICHR9/10 chipsets) there is a way to safely enable AHCI mode. Here we go:

1. Startup "Regedit
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlset / Services
3. Open msahci
4. In the right field left click on "start" and go to Modify
5. In the value Data field enter "0" and click "ok"
6. exit "Regedit"
7. Reboot Rig and enter BIOS (hold "Delete" key while Booting

In your BIOS select "Integrated Peripherals" and OnChip PATA/SATA Devices. Now change SATA Mode to AHCI from IDE.

You now boot into windows 7, the OS will recognize AHCI and install the devices. Now the system needs one more reboot and voilla .. enjoy the improved SSD performance.

We have not tested this on Vista though.

Update -- we tested and this tweak works in Vista 100% the same.

 

[MindoverMaster]

If IDE works fine, there is no reason you need to change it to AHCI. Same vice versa. It will not hurt your hard drive in any way. It's just a different allocation.

 

[Desolation]

Hey everyone!

It's been a little while since I've posted here but I have a question and I know all of you can help me out. So I know that AHCI is, at least I believe so, much better than IDE especially with SSD's because it allows for the use of TRIM. I am not 100% on that and I am not sure if simply switching from IDE to AHCI will take advantage of TRIM or not. I do believe though that SSDs run much better on AHCI as opposed to IDE. The only reason I even installed Windows the way I did (on IDE) was because I bought a OCZ Revodrive which became annoyingly complicated to install properly. It wasn't too bad once I finally was able to find a dedicated installation procedure but still a pain.

My question before I go on rambling too long is am I just able to simply switch from IDE to AHCI in Bios (I know I can but can I do that w/o any problems)? Will I mess up my HDD format? Lose files? Have to re-install everything to do this? etc, etc?

Hopefully you all understand what I am trying to ask.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: While searching I was able to find this. Has anyone else tried this successfully?

yes that method works just fine

 

[zandre88]

Well the reason I want to switch is that generally SSD runs much better with AHCI at least that is what I thought. Also, and I could be very much wrong here, I thought that without TRIM that SSD's generally begin to degrade in their performance. Not that I've noticed a huge difference but it seems as though Windows isn't loading quite as fast as it was when I first got everything set-up. Yes I'm sure you could attribute that to more programs but only maybe one of them actually loads when Windows starts.

However if the registry hack works I think I will go ahead and use that.

Lastly just to make sure, I know that registry procedure will work with my SSD, but it will work fine with my HDDs also correct?

Thanks again all.

 

[MindoverMaster]

My SSD is set on IDE and is using TRIM.

That slowness can be due to programs that are hidden to your knowledge at startup. Go to Run, type in msconfig go to the startup tab. That is all the programs that run on startup. I say to uncheck it unless you know what it is and need it.

Do not use the registry cleaner. It does not make your computer faster. Did you try spyware scans?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

AHCI can and does improve speed over IDE config, if you ever do a fresh install of your OS definitely use AHCI. As to the method outlined in that post you quoted, I'm not sure if it'd work sorry. I've never tried it myself.
I made the same mistake you did, I took the easy route and did a reinstall

 

[zandre88]

AHCI can and does improve speed over IDE config, if you ever do a fresh install of your OS definitely use AHCI. As to the method outlined in that post you quoted, I'm not sure if it'd work sorry. I've never tried it myself.
I made the same mistake you did, I took the easy route and did a reinstall

Well I guess I can give it a try and see what happens. I wouldn't be losing anything on my HDDs just the information on my SSD. It'd be a pain to reinstall all of it but I am almost positive that the method will work because I remember reading over at the OCZ forums that if you wanted to run it on AHCI that you could do the registry hack.

Still in the great debate of what to do. I just really do not want to have to re-install Windows and all of my programs all over again.

 

[Desolation]

that way does work tested it out my self seems like a little improvement over ide but its still better to just reinstall and enable it from the start

 

[zandre88]

Well I went ahead and did it also. Not having any problems of any kind so I think I'll just keep it the way it is for now. The reason I didn't install the OS originally on AHCI is because with the RevoDrive SSDs there is a dedicated installation process you have to follow to get it to install properly. In this installation process, which comes directly from OCZ, it is suggested to install the OS while in IDE. They said afterward you can always do the registry hack, which I assume is what that procedure above is, to switch to AHCI. To be honest its just kind of a pain in the *** which is why I don't want to do a total re-install of Windows.

Hopefully I won't run into any problems. I will update this thread if I do.

Now I just need to read up on some SSD tweaking for even faster speeds. I sometimes wonder if I should have gotten a SATA SSD first instead of the PCIe RevoDrive because I have nothing to compare the speed to. Oh well.